Roverandom

In 1925, while on vacation with his family on the Yorkshire coast, four-year-old Michael Tolkien lost his favorite toy, a little lead dog he was reluctant to put down even to play on the beach. To console and distract him, his father, J. R. R. Tolkien, improvised a story - the story of Rover, a real dog magically transformed into a toy, who, after many fantastic adventures in search of the wizard who wronged him, at last wins back his doggy life. This charming tale, peopled by a terrible dragon and a wise old whale, by the king of the sea and the Man-in-the-Moon, was a Tolkien family favorite and went through several drafts over the years. Now, more than seventy years after it was written, the story of Rover - or, as the Man-in-the-Moon fondly called him, Roverandom - is published at last, together with five illustrations by the author.